Time is such a fickle thing
by Maritiarty
Summary: Ah yes, there nothing like getting stabbed in the stomach with lighting by your former crush. Sakura Haruno at age twelve was a lanky, weak little girl with no talent in the ninja field. Sakura Haruno at age twenty was a strong independent Kunoichi that no one messed with. Now Sakura is back in her twelve year old body with no idea how she ended up there in the first place.
1. Chapter 1

**Hiya Guys!**

 **Just thought I'd let you know that this is a new version of Hourglass. I know that some people liked the old one, but i thought it was kinda lame, so i made a new one! It might be a little different though.**

 **Comment and Review!**

* * *

 _ **Jutsu**_

 _Thinking_

"Talking"

* * *

The sound of birds were always soothing, or annoying- but that was mostly in the morning. Birds meant peace, if there was no peace there would be no birds. These birds though...these birds were fierce. They chirped loud, though it seemed more like screams then a bird's chirp. Oh how Sakura wished it was morning and peaceful.

But there was no peace left in this world.

Most of Sakura's friends were dead. Naruto, Ino, Hinata, Choji, Gaara, Temari, Kankuro, Lee, Neji, Kiba, Shino, Kakashi-sensei, *Tsunade-taicho, Shizune, and others...

And all because of him.

Sasuke Uchiha.

The only ones left were the few remaining shinobi forces and Sakura, Shikamaru, and Sai - who she was currently healing, but it was certain that his death was inevitable. He had been stabbed by Kusanagi, Sasuke's sword. It missed his heart by several inches, but it had been fused with Sasuke's famous lighting jutsu, Chidori.

Sai's insides were fried severely but he had survived - if only for a little while longer.

"Just hold on Sai! I'm almost done, you're gonna make it!" Sakura said to the pale boy, who was even more pale if that was possible. Her hands were glowing green with her medical chakra, she was fighting a losing battle, just like the one they were in now.

"Sakura..." Shikamaru said quietly, trying to tell to stop, that it was no use.

"SHUT UP! I'm gonna save him!" Sakura shouted, tears running freely down her face. Suddenly a hand gripped her arm. She glanced down and saw Sai smiling at her. Smiling in the face of death.

"Ugly...thank you." Sai said as the light left his eyes, his hand loosened it's grip and fell to his side. Sakura sat very still, he hand's had stopped glowing green and laid gently against the cold body. Shikamaru looked worriedly at the pinkette. Suddenly Sakura shoved her fist into the ground, making a huge crack in the ground. Shikamaru gulped.

"SASUKE!" Sakura screamed, standing up and running out onto the battle field, Shikamaru told her to stop and come back, but all she heard was the wind whipping against her face as she charged at the smug bastard, who was currently holding up Naruto's broken body, as if he was some sort of prize. Sakura saw red.

Her fist glowed green as she shot a well aimed fist at Sasuke who glared and threw Naruto's body to the ground. And tried to draw his blade out, but Sakura was faster. Though she didn't get his chest, she did clip his shoulder. Forcing her chakra into his shoulder and down his arm, she rendered it useless. Sasuke growled and drew chakra to his hand. The sound of birds chirping could be heard for miles. Sakura drew back, knowing that she couldn't afford to be hit with that jutsu, the same one that killed Sai...and Naruto.

Images of Naruto flashed through her mind.

Academy days, were he would ask her out on dates and she would hit him, and decided to chase after Sasuke.

Team Seven, were he soon became stronger and she couldn't help but be amazed at his stamina and strength, though at the time she didn't care much for it, only seeing Sasuke as the stronger one, the cooler one, the better one. My what a fool she had been.

When Naruto left with Jiraiya-sama to train when Sasuke left. She made Naruto promise to bring Sasuke back to her. She would never forgive herself for it.

When Naruto came back, Sakura saw him for the first time, a strong boy - no - a strong man who never gave up, and was getting stronger every day.

Then the war came.

Naruto was their main weapon. He had finally gotten a hold of Kyuubi's chakra and was using it to it's full extent. He was like the sun. Warm and welcoming, always there for her when she needed him.

Now she needed him the most, and he wasn't there, and would never be there ever again. Maybe she was being selfish, but right now she didn't care. Naruto couldn't rescue her anymore, now she had to save herself, or die trying.

Sasuke charged, Sakura summed all her strength.

 _Are you watching Naruto?_

 **Five seconds.**

 _I hope you're proud of me._

 **Three seconds.**

 _I'm sorry I made you make that promise._

 **One second.**

 _See you soon._

 **"CHIDORI!"**


	2. Chapter 2

They had been walking back to their usual place that they meet after a mission, they had just captured a cat named Tora, when suddenly Sakura collapsed.

"Sakura-chan?!" called out a familiar loud voice, a fallen comrade.

Sakura sucked in a large breath of air, desperate for oxygen. Then she screamed.

"UuuuuAAAAAHHH!" Sakura screamed, grabbing fistfuls of her hair, and pulled hard, trying to rip it out. A pair of hands gripped her arms and pried her hands from her hair.

"Sakura! Calm yourself!" Another familiar voice said, this time it was her dead sensei.

Suddenly her eyes snapped open and her bright green eyes started darting back and forth, trying to tell where she was at, then finally settled on the man in front of her.

"K-K-Kakashi-sensei..." she whispered, then tears poured from her eyes and she started to sob loudly and went limp in his grip, slowly falling to the ground, she suddenly felt dizzy...maybe some sleep would help...yeah...sleep...

* * *

The second time Sakura woke up, she found herself laying in a hospital bed and groaned.

'Shisho must have been brutal with training last night...' The still sleepy teen concluded before reality set in.

"What the fu-"

"Ah! I see our patient is awake! Let me just check you over and you'll be free to go!" said a nurse who had just entered the room.

Sakura narrowed her eyes at the woman who didn't notice or just was used to the treatment. She proceeded to check Sakura's blood pressure and looked over the machine's that was hooked to an IV that was attached to Sakura's arm.

"All good to go!" She smiled warmly at the teen, who was still staring at the nurse, trying to see if the nurse was a threat.

"Oh! And your team is waiting outside the room, I'll send them in!" The nurse walked out the door, now Sakura was panicking. Whatever was going on, she didn't want to stay around to see her dead sensei and teammates-

Sakura stopped mid-thought.

Teammates.

Sasuke.

Anger flared in Sakura, and she was leaking out a small portion of her killer intent.

"Maa maa Sakura-chan, didn't know you were so angry at me."

Sakura froze, and she slowly turned her attention to the voice, and held in a gasp. In front of her was a man she had looked up to, trained with, was like a father to her, who had been dead for a year, her sensei.

"Kakashi-sensei." Sakura spoke and grimaced at the sound of her voice, it was higher and a little pitchy. Her younger voice, one she had had trouble with controlling, especially when she was angry. But back to matter at hand, this...impostor...had taken the form of her dead sensei. That pissed her off.

"Sakura, care to tell me what happened back there?" Impostor-Kakashi asked.

Sakura viciously lunged at the man. How DARE he impersonate her sensei?!

Impostor-Kakashi's eye widened at the sudden attack, but immediately went to block the assault, but was sent flying back a few feet, due to the force of the punch that Sakura had landed on his arms that were ready to block.

Sakura took that time to turn, and jump out the nearest window, barely noticing that it was a two-story high building. Sending chakra to the soles of her feet to lessen the impact of the fall, Sakura landed softly with no sound, quickly taking off in a random direction. Letting her feet take her, she quickly maneuvered through the busy streets, not noticing the blushing faces of the men and women that she passed. She didn't realize that the hospital gown she wore, left her entirely naked, besides the thin cloth that moved wildly in the wind, exposing her tiny breasts. But at that moment, all she concentrate on was getting away from the impostors, that meant the women and children, men included. This was all fake, Konoha was gone. Destroyed. Nothing was left.

"Sakura!" a voice called out, glancing quickly to her right, she saw Ino, her best friend, one that didn't have her skull crushed in and a torn apart body. Sakura felt tears stream down her face as she ran faster, ignoring the calls of her dead friend. She needed to get away, and quickly.

* * *

Once she was deep inside the Forest of Death, Sakura finally took notice of her body.

Her legs had multiple scratches deep enough for beads of blood to show. Her arms were scratched as well, not as bad as her legs. Her hair was a mess, twigs and clumps of dirt in her long pink hair. Her feet were the worst though. The once soft smooth feet were now covered in blood and glass from a broken bottle she had stepped on somewhere back in the village she had ran from.

Pain had now hit her, and she quickly pulled out the dirty pieces of glass, tears running down her face. Sakura knew that she shouldn't be crying, she had been though a lot worse, yet this body had hardly been toughed with pain. This body was weak. And Sakura needed to get stronger if she was going to be able to escape this.

 **'Hey there, miss me?'** said a disembodied voice.

Sakura whipped around, trying to find the source of the strange voice that seemed to echo in her head.

 **'Well duh, I'm you, remember?'**

Sakura finally stopped looking when she remember.

"Inner?"

 **'Welcome back, seems like we're in the past.'**

"What? That's not possible..."

 **'You might not want to talk out loud like that...'**

'Right...Wait, how are you here? I thought you left a long time ago...'

 **'Like I said before, we seem to be back in the past, meaning I'm still here. But don't worry, I know everything. Even if I left, I'm still you. So I know everything you did, done, uh..whatever you know what I mean.'**

Sakura gaped, then sighed, finally calming down for the first time since she had 'woken up'. Then she remembered with a flinch the pain in her feet. She quickly summoned her medical chakra and slowly started to heal her bloody feet.

 **'Yikes, that must have hurt.'**

'Didn't even feel it at the time.'

 **'I see, anyways, you might want to hurry, I can feel two chakra signatures coming.'**

'How can you-'

"Sakura!" said girl jumped from her spot on the forest floor, and quickly turned to find her sensei coming at her full speed.

Sakura discreetly healed a little bit of her feet, just enough for the pain to lesson, but not enough to fully heal, she didn't want to explain why she had blood on her feet, yet there were no wounds. After that was done, she stopped and waited for her sensei. Kakashi stopped right in front of the shivering girl.

"Sakura, are you okay?" Kakashi asked, crouching down to her level. Sakura nodded slowly, still not used to the idea that she was in the past.

Kakashi sighed and rubbed the back of his head, and eye smiled at the young girl before his face went beet red at the sight of her almost completely exposed body. Quickly taking off his Jounin jacket and handed it to his exposed student, who stared at it for a few seconds before taking it and putting it on. The oversized jacket, covered her front and back side completely.

Kakashi sighed again, and lifted the petite teen on his back, heading back to the village.

* * *

They ended up back outside the hospital.

"Sakura-chan!" A miniature Naruto called out, a worried expression on his face. Sakura held back tears, she knew that the future hasn't happened yet, so she had to put on a smile. Things would be different now, she knew it. She wouldn't be the stuck up little girl that followed Sasuke around like a lost puppy. No, she wouldn't be waiting to train after Naruto sets off with Jirraiya. She would start her training now.

"Sakura-chan! Are you okay? Why did you just leave like that? You had us worried, even the Teme!"

"Dobe." Sasuke said from behind the loudmouth.

Sakura tensed, and tried to relax as Kakashi slid her off his back gently. Sakura slowly sucked in a deep breath before blowing it out and smiled at the panicked boy, who was relived to see her okay, but a little confused as to why she was smiling at him.

Sakura slowly walked over to the confuse boy, who was now expecting to get hit or something, but he wasn't ready for the hug.

"I'm glad you're okay..." she whispered and pulled back a little to smile at him widely.

"S-Sakura-chan?" Naruto's face was now as red as a tomato. Sakura smiled even wider before looking behind him at Sasuke, who was staring at her, not showing any emotion, but surprise was in his eyes.

Sakura kept her face cool, and turned back to Naruto who was still looking confused before she let go of him and walked back a few steps.

"Sorry, I just...had a really bad dream."

Kakashi had been reading for a while, well pretending to read, watching the girl's interactions with the boys. Very surprised to see her hug Naruto, who not just the other day, hated his guts and was constantly hitting him for talking to her. Now she was hugging and smiling at him like he was a close friend who was back from somewhere far away...very interesting.

"Oh? What kind of dream?"

Sakura shuddered, and frowned at the ground.

"You were all dead."

Kakashi snapped him book shut and put it in his pocket, now paying full attention to the shaking girl.

Sakura kept her cool, going along with the story she had thought up on the way back to the village with her sensei.

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked, concerned, his face still a little red from the hug she had given him.

All Sakura had to do was think about Naruto's death for real tears to run down her face. She looked up and stared at the three men, who now winced at the pathetic sight of the crying Kunoichi. Sakura didn't care that she looked weak, cause right now, she needed to sell this story or it was a one way ticket to see the Hokage and then Ibiki Morino's torture chamber where she would most likely be mind-raped. Sakura shivered at the thought.

"You all died, everyone died."

"Sakura.."

"It's okay, I know I'm weak, this sort of thing shouldn't bother me, but...it was too real...too scary. I thought I was in some sort of dream when I woke up, I saw you Kakashi-sensei. You were dead, you too Naruto, you had all been killed. No one was left!" Sakura was now full on crying, the details of her death brought phantom pains to her chest. She clutched it.

"I could feel myself dying. The pain..." Kakashi grimaced at the sight of her eyes, they had a haunted look to them.

Sasuke who had been listening with disinterest perked up, he wondered slightly why she hadn't mentioned him. And when she looked at him, her face may have been normal, but the look in her eyes when she looked at him...was full of hatred. What did he do to deserve that look?

"Who did it?" Naruto suddenly asked, his face full of pain for the girl in front of them.

Sakura stiffened and looked down at her dirty feet, a mess of blood still on them, Kakashi didn't notice her feet until now.

"Sakura-chan, why didn't you tell me about your feet?" Kakashi asked, concerned.

Sakura shook her head and smiled a little, "They're fine, doesn't even hurt."

"You need to go back inside the hospital, or you'll get scars."

"Ninjas get scars all the time." Sakura said, a nonchalant shrug.

Kakashi sighed, looking much like a Nara, before throwing the pinkette over his shoulder and carrying her to the hospital doors, careful to hide her rear with the jacket.

"H-Hey! Put me down! I'm fine!"

The pair entered the hospital, Sakura's complaints still could be heard while they walked away.

Naruto and Sasuke stared at the doors of the hospital.

"I wonder...who was it?" Naruto thought out loud.

Sasuke shrugged before turning around and heading towards his apartment.


End file.
